Time to think strategically

This is the time of year when lawn care companies should, and often do, start thinking about their strategic marketing efforts.

Some quick marketing lingo explained:

Strategic marketing includes those things that will have fundamental, global effect on a business over the long term. Strategic decisions should be thought of as painting the big picture and usually don't have an immediate impact on a business.

Tactical marketing are those thing done on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to sell and grow your business.

Thoughout most of the growing season, business owner focus on tactical things like flyers, short-term promotions, newspaper inserts. Those thing that can have an immediate short-term impact on a business.

Now that the grow season is ending for most of the country, it's time to start thinking strategically. What do you want to do next year, the next three years or the next ten? Do you want to put together an integrated marketing plan built around a core message, do you want to introduce a new logo in the spring, do you want to build a truly functional website, etc. All these thing require planning, time and financial resources. Many of these things can take months to complete!

If you want to hit the ground running in the spring, just like late fall fertilization, now is the time to get started.